Moon rover to be controlled by European Space Agency

China successfully carried out its soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, state media said.

Saturday's successful mission is the latest stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon.

The rover will be remotely controlled by Chinese control centres with support from a network of tracking and transmission stations around the world operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The probe and the rover are expected to photograph each other on Sunday.